Five human skeletons — all missing hands and feet — were discovered at Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s eastern front military headquarters in present-day Poland, buried inside the home of Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering.
The bodies of three adults, a baby and an older child were discovered by a group called the Latebra Foundation, amateur archaeologists who have been excavating the site with official permission for several years, group members and officials said.
“You would never expect such things in a place like this because it was the most guarded place in the Third Reich and after the war the Russians took over this place,” Dominik Markiewicz, a member of the group, told Reuters.
“Everyone was wondering what could have happened there… We tried to think of something, but nothing reasonable came to mind,” he said. “We didn’t know what we were dealing with. Was it some occult rituals of Third Reich fanatics? We have no idea.”
He added that it is unclear whether the skeletons date back to World War II or whether they were buried there later.
Sebastian Trapik, deputy director of education and tourism promotion for the Srokowo Forest District, the Polish government agency responsible for the site, told Reuters that the bodies were found buried just below the ground in a part of the site where there had previously been a floor. wooden.
Daniel Brodowski, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the neighboring provincial capital Olsztyn, said an investigation had been opened and that forensic investigators had examined the bodies under police supervision.
The “Wolf’s Lair” served as one of Hitler’s military headquarters during World War II and consisted of around 200 structures covering an area of 250 hectares. The site was destroyed by Nazi German forces before they withdrew in early 1945 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the approaching Soviet Red Army.
What remains of the bunkers, shelters and barracks in the Gierloz forest in northeastern Poland can now be visited by tourists. The house of Goering, who commanded the then-German Air Force, Luftwaffe, and became Germany’s highest-ranking military officer and Hitler’s designated successor, is largely in decay.
